The present invention relates to apparatus for washing and sanitizing delivery carts, particularly a cart of the type having an open side.
Wheeled delivery carts are widely used in hospitals and other institutional settings for transporting food, supplies and the like. Typically, the carts are cleaned and sanitized with each use to prevent contamination of the transported articles and to minimize the risk of infection to those handling the carts.
Heretofore, apparatus for washing and sanitizing hospital or other institutional-use carts have been proposed. An apparatus designed specifically for washing delivery carts of the type having an open top and an upper cut-out portion formed in one side of the cart is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,948. The apparatus of that invention includes a chamber having a sealable-door entrance facing an infeed side of the chamber, and a sealable-door exit facing the chamber's outfeed side. A cart is moved through to the chamber, from the infeed to the outfeed side thereof, on a track which defines a central washing station within the chamber. A rotary washing device suspended from the ceiling of the chamber includes an outer spray boom which extends vertically along the outside of a cart positioned at the washing station, to spray pressurized wash water from the boom against the outside surface of the cart. A second, swinging boom in the washing device is mounted adjacent the rotational axis of the device for swinging between a raised horizontal position extending above the cart, downwardly through the cart's cut-out portion toward a vertical position, where the spray boom is adapted to spray pressurized wash water against the inside surface of the cart. As the washing device is rotated, pressurized spray from the two spray booms directed against opposed inner and outer cart surfaces effects complete cart washing.
It is common in hospitals and other institutions to use, in addition to the open-top cart of the type described above, a delivery cart of the type having a closed top, and an open side providing access to shelves in the cart. This type of cart cannot be washed by the swinging boom device described above.
One object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a washing apparatus constructed for washing a delivery cart of the type having a closed top and an open side.
Another object of the invention is to provide such an apparatus which is also constructed for washing, in another mode in the apparatus an open-top delivery cart of the type described above.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide such an apparatus which is easily operated in one of two semiautomatic of fully automatic modes.
An additional object of the invention to provide a washing apparatus which is operable to discharge a washed cart by a gravity-assisted off-feed mechanism.
The apparatus of the present invention is intended for use in washing a delivery cart of the type having an open side. The apparatus includes a chamber adapted to receive a cart at a washing station defined within the chamber. A first spray structure mounted within the chamber of oscillatory movement adjacent the open side of a cart is supplied pressurized wash water to produce a wash water spray directed toward the cart's open side. The spray structure is driven in an oscillatory fashion adapted to direct the water spray against substantially the entire inner cart surfaces to be washed. A second spray structure is mounted within the chamber for movement substantially completely encircling a cart at the station, wherein a pressurized water spray from the boom is directed against substantially the entire outer side cart surfaces.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the first spray structure includes a pair of spray booms mounted for oscillatory swinging movement about a pair of spaced vertical axes, and the second spray structure includes a spray boom mounted for rotational movement about the washing station.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent when the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.